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As a diehard, Call of Cthulhu and BRP fan, anyway I can. It seems that the Cthulhu Mythos leaks into just about any campaign I run.

I notice I'm not alone. Cthulhoid monstrousities are common place in D&D. The first published 4ed module had a distinctly Cthulhu-esque flair about it (evil cultist, portal to another world, a thing from beyond)...

And if you have CoC d20, you can even port Cthulhu directly over to your (3.X) D&D games!

You can even have your party fight Cthulhu if you want (though they'll lose)! I remember reading the playtest notes somewhere about the WotC developers running a combat with four level-20 PCs facing off against Cthulhu. When one of the PCs died, they were allowed to bring another one in on the next round. If I remember correctly, they said that they went through about 12 PCs before they finally managed to get Cthulhu to fail his save against an Imprisonment spell. This ended the combat, but was a "temporary" solution at best.

RPGs and horror often go hand in hand and was there a more influential horror writer of the 20th century than H.P. Lovecraft?

Possibly Anne Rice, who popularized the whole "tragic vampire" trope ... admittedly with antecedents in various retellings of Dracula.

Stephen King has written a whole lot of books. While there's no one trope that stands out, everybody knows Carrie, Children of the Corn, The Shining, and other works, if only from movies. Most people will recognize pop cultural references to pigs' blood at the prom, children in a corn field, or creepy twin girls more easily than eldritch horrors (or telltale hearts, sad to say). Whether that fame will fade, or last as long as Dickens, no one can say.

Also, stretching the definition of writer, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and sequels created a new kind of monster with an old name which has also filtered into pop culture, other movies, and novels from World War Z to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
- Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871)

RPGs and horror often go hand in hand and was there a more influential horror writer of the 20th century than H.P. Lovecraft?

I think not.

Gary

I would say Edgar Allen Poe, but he was firmly 19th century (1809 to 1849). Among those you have to add Mary Shelly and Bram Stoker.

It's not so much that Dracula was that good, but it has been endlessly adapted.

Don't forget the other writers who dealt in the mythos, many directly as friends of Lovecraft. August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch and Fritz Leiber among others formed a small writing circle that exchanged bits and stories and they could be said to have built the mythos as much as Lovecraft himself.

Garry AKA --Phoenix-- Rising above the Flames. My favorite game console is a table and chairs. The Olde Phoenix Inn

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Stephen King has written a whole lot of books. While there's no one trope that stands out, everybody knows Carrie, Children of the Corn, The Shining, and other works, if only from movies. Most people will recognize pop cultural references to pigs' blood at the prom, children in a corn field, or creepy twin girls more easily than eldritch horrors (or telltale hearts, sad to say). Whether that fame will fade, or last as long as Dickens, no one can say. ...clip...

Many people don't realize how pervasive HPL's influence is in modern horror, much the same way most people don't think they're drinking flavored water everytime they pop open a coke, beer or wine bottle.

Like the water, HPL's influence is the basis of so much in the genre that it's often forgotten that it's there.

S. King's Jerusalem's Lot is an homage to Lovecraft, it's very nearly a pastiche.

Edgar Allen Poe comes in a close second. But HPL has to be top of the list.

Poe was the first modern horror writers, but I have to agree that the Lovecraft's influence runs deep. Anyone that remembers "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon, my son calls it "CoC the series." They referenced Lovecraft constantly, but in a fun lighthearted way.

Heck I have a Cluthulu plush on the bookcase. Horror conquered by cute. The "Mythos" has inflatrated fanish culture to a great deal, and most people including myself, have never read the original work.

Last edited by tesral; 06-01-2011 at 06:39 PM.

Garry AKA --Phoenix-- Rising above the Flames. My favorite game console is a table and chairs. The Olde Phoenix Inn

I'm definately a fan of HPL's original works as well as that of his circle of friends and contemporaries. The Cthulhu Mythos is a very unique kind of horror that is made all the more compelling because it doesn't not call upon cheap thrills to move the reader. Some have commented that HPL's works are somewhat of a "dry" read. I think that comes across for 2 primary reasons: 1) most of his main characters are very intellectual which adds to the horror because even they, the most rational, educated and grounded people are so completely undone by the terrible things that they witness, and 2) the stories, more often than not, are about a "slow, creeping realization", not quick shocks, and thus they are not brimming with excitement as much as gradually threatening revelation of terror.

As HPL wrote, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown". That sums it up pretty well. His stories are about the exploration of the unknown and terrible truths that people uncover when they dig too deep.

I used to do Classic Era BRP almost exclusively. Then Cthulhu Dark Ages came out, I wrote one of the modules for the first Chaosium GenCon Dark Ages Tournament, and I've been in love with the period ever since. I am currently working on 2 campaigns and a CDA sourcebook.

As a busy grad student I love the convenience of good published scenarios. I just started Masks of Nyarlathotep with a new group, plus investigations from some of the other books (Mansions of Madness and Great Old Ones are great).

I only ran BRP rules a couple of times years ago. More recently I've used GURPS 4th Edition (worked great, particularly since I limited the skills available to a bottom-of-the-character-sheet deal, like BRP Cthulhu) and now we're running Trail of Cthulhu. For just an investigative horror game, I think it's pretty perfect.

As much as I dip into the well of madness, I';m not fond of the very idea of "things man was not meant to know". Ergo I don't play the CoC game. Get knowledge; go insane. I prefer my heroes heroic, in the Fantasy or Pulp sense. Everypersons that strive to become more and overcome, not fall victim.

That said ideas are were you find them.

Garry AKA --Phoenix-- Rising above the Flames. My favorite game console is a table and chairs. The Olde Phoenix Inn

As much as I dip into the well of madness, I';m not fond of the very idea of "things man was not meant to know". Ergo I don't play the CoC game. Get knowledge; go insane. I prefer my heroes heroic, in the Fantasy or Pulp sense. Everypersons that strive to become more and overcome, not fall victim.

That said ideas are were you find them.

But half the fun occurs when you do stuff that causes the GM to tell you to make SAN checks. It is a horror setting, afterall. I consider it a plus if my character survives the session. For my heroic fix, D&D is my system of choice.